Sorry, Baby is a new film distributed by A24 that initially premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and had a limited release on June 27th, before it releases wide on July 27th. Written & directed by Eva Victor, the film stars Victor, Naomi Ackie, Lucas Hedges, John Carroll Lynch, Louis Cancelmi, and Kelly McCormack. Something bad happened to Agnes. But life goes on… for everyone around her, at least. When a beloved friend visits on the brink of a major milestone, Agnes starts to realize just how stuck she’s been and begins to work through how to move forward.

It feels like just yesterday when I first about Sorry, Baby. Based off the main image, and poster, alone, I didn’t think of much, but when A24 acquired it for a pretty penny, I knew this was going to be something worth watching. A24 has been known to try to add an awards contender to the summer slate each year. Personally, I do think this continues to be an odd choice. You’ll see what I mean you watch it based off the heavy topics explored in the film. Nonetheless, I only hope good word of mouth spreads to get it to awards season. It’s deserving of it.

When you read the plot alone that I provided, it is intentionally vague. When you look at the plot Wikipedia gives you, it gives everything away. I accidentally came across this as I was trying to put my reviews together beforehand. Given the sort of heavy topic this film provides, it may best to give viewers more context beforehand to better prepare them. I am noticing that is something others have taken issue with the film.

The film certainly has a comedy tone to it thanks to Eva Victor’s direction. By having Victor as the director, they get to bring this story to life with authenticity. They have so much chemistry with everyone around them. This is one of the best ensembles of the year. If you are not already familiar with Victor, you will be after this. Victor’s performance alone puts them in the top of the best performances of the year.

The comedy Victor establishes in the film is genuine. You immediately understand who these characters are. When it’s serious, it gets serious, but Victor manages to bring back some of the humor to help us feel a little better. That’s not to say they aren’t trying to give us something worth thinking about long after the credits rolled. Between the breezy runtime and how personal the film felt to me, I haven’t just stayed in my theater during the credits since Perfect Days.

The film hardly has a score. Based on what I can recall, I believe the music in the movie only comes from within that world. For the most part, you are just hearing the environment. That’s the best way to immerse you into this story. Victor intentionally does this to help us connect with them more and to leave us worth something to think about long after the credits rolled.

There are also incredibly long camera takes where we see the passage of time and just how Eva Victors character is reacting. Long takes like this is something that reminded me a lot of Tarantino’s work and how we will just follow characters somewhere. I did get the sense that Victor experienced the all of this in real life which inspired the film. There are moments where you are just seeing Victor talking and describing events we didn’t see. They manage to effectively do it through their body language and the imagery they evoke through the dialogue.

There is plenty of ambiguity in the end that may leave viewers wanting more. If you had to put me in the position of concluding it, I probably would have answered one key plot point involving Lucas Hedges’ character. It’s crazy how long it’s been since we have had Hedges and he is great here. There is just a bit towards the end that made me question his motive, but I think it’s more effective to leave it open-ended to make the audience question the film’s overall themes and whether or not it can change.

Overall, Sorry, Baby is one of the most important & relatable movies of the decade. Eva Victor is going to be a name to pay close attention to going forward. The humor is just as effective as the drama. This one is going to stick with me for a long time, and will certainly make it into my top 10 best movies of the year.

VERDICT: 5/5 (Perfect)